Joint Statement on Dealing with Holocaust Revisionism
The Synagogue Council of America &
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops
(March 14, 1994)
Ever since World War II various extremist, often neo-Nazi groups have sought to deny
the crimes of the Nazis, particularly the attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. We
condemn these prejudiced efforts and the racial hatred they would incite.
In the 1970's, proponents of Holocaust denial began to camouflage their message of
hatred and antisemitism under a veneer of scholarly terminology in order to regain
respectability. Rather than stating their beliefs straightforwardly, they began to call
themselves "historical revisionists," pretending to be interested in challenging
and "revising" common understandings of the period.
In this guise of holocaust revisionism, the denials of the evils perpetrated by Nazism
against so many peoples and groups in Europe sought to rehabilitate the tattered image of
National Socialism (Nazism). To some extent they succeeded in getting their views
considered in unsuspecting academic symposia that took their claims to scholarly integrity
at face value.
Increasingly blocked from academic fore as word spread, the Holocaust deniers have
adopted a new tactic, placing advertisements in college newspapers. Again hiding their
true intent under more respectable guise, such as so-called committees for "open
debate" on the Holocaust, the unsolicited ads deny the reality of the gas chambers
and of Nazi genocide.
The deniers then argue that the First Amendment should be read to impel university and
college publications to publish whatever material they may choose to provide. This is a
perversion of the First Amendment. All educational institutions and their publications,
whether official or student-sponsored, should unconditionally reject any efforts to deny
the horrifying realities of the Holocaust.
Source: Jewish-Christian Relations
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